The BIO International Convention 2024 in San Diego has come to an end. In a period of four days, we met with 40+ biotech innovators. Notable trends are AI in drug discovery, radiopharmaceuticals, cell and gene therapies, genome editing, personalized and precision medicine, and monoclonal antibodies. As an imaging CRO, we were happy to notice the great interest in our imaging methods for clinical trials. In this news item, you can read our BIO 2024 recap.
What are the key takeaways from our conversations?
As imaging CRO our conversations focused on preclinical and clinical drug development activities. The key takeaways of our team were:
- the radiopharmaceutical space continues to grow;
- the funding landscape is picking up;
- dosimetry is getting more important;
- imaging in clinical trials has become common.
Radiopharmaceuticals in oncology
Our main takeaway from the convention is the ongoing popularity of radiopharmaceuticals in oncology. Other targets than Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) for Radioligand Therapy (RLT) are now also starting to pick up. During our conversations, it became clear that many therapeutic companies are now also looking for ways to include radiopharmaceuticals in their portfolio.
Challenges in dosimetry
One of the topics discussed regarding our expertise in early-phase clinical trials was dosimetry. Dosimetry estimates for first in-human studies remain challenging. In this news item, we list some of the challenges often mentioned.
- Calculations for in-human dosimetry based on preclinical data.
- Working with regulatory limitations based on external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) standards for radiopharmaceuticals.
- Inter-patient variability and the effect on distribution and absorption.
- Availability and limitations of imaging modalities.
- Finding the right experts to provide guidance in radiopharmaceutical trials.
Understanding your compound
To asses a binding agent, for example in Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) or radiopharmaceuticals, our solution was received positively. With our exploratory phase, drug developers can move earlier into the clinic. With positive results, adding to the interest of investors and their company evaluation.
Funding landscape of radiopharmaceuticals
Is the funding landscape for biotech making a turnaround? Several CFOs and BD experts told us that the number of conversations they had scheduled with investors had significantly increased from a year before. The interest in preclinical and early clinical phase companies still remains relatively low compared to companies in late-stage development with the exception of those in the radiopharmaceutical space.
The organized “Start-Up Stadium” was meant to place start-ups in the spotlight. If you are interested in this topic, also read our blog on how we provide data for start-up and scale-up biotech to help secure investments.
Ari Aminetzah, CBO at TRACER
Growing interest in imaging in clinical trials
For radiopharmaceuticals, imaging is in general already a part of clinical research. However, with our method of labeling ANY compound with a radionuclide, we offer imaging trials to almost ALL types of compounds. This way we can visualize biodistribution and calculate on- and off-target uptake for your compound. This data provides Proof of Concept, and can also be used to attract funding and obtain regulatory approval/IND for subsequent trials.
If you want to learn more about Phase 0 for your drug development, contact us. We can meet at the next BIO or schedule a call.
